


The Age Of Metal

by MissingTime



Series: The Age Of Quarrel [1]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Original Characters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:15:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27113173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissingTime/pseuds/MissingTime
Summary: When a mysterious unicorn from another world appears in the Fright Zone, Shadow Weaver sees an opportunity to overthrow Hordak and control the world. Hordak sees the potential to increase his own powers, and Catra sees a new rival to take her mind off of Adora.As the unicorn, antagonizes Hordak's soldiers, the princesses, as well as Swift Wind, quickly realize that the unicorn could be a valued ally if he were to join their side.
Series: The Age Of Quarrel [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1979029
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story will be an alternate universe story featuring Sir Phobos, a major antagonist in my story The Age Of Quarrel. However, since he doesn't appear until much later, I thought it would be a cool idea to introduce him here so that people have a chance to get to know him a bit before he is introduced properly.
> 
> I have some very cool ideas planned for this story. I think that Sir Phobos will fit into this version of She-Ra pretty well.

**Chapter 1: The Metal Unicorn**

“Explain yourself, Shadow Weaver. Why do you believe that this beast is worthy of my time?” in front of Hordak was a white unicorn encased in a suit of armor with metal wings protruding from his back. To Hordak, the only thing interesting about the beast was its armor. To Shadow Weaver, the sleeping unicorn was the monster who had slain three unfortunate souls who had discovered it while patrolling the forest.

The beast didn’t even have to move to slay them, it seemed as though his wings defended him, as though they possessed some kind of intelligence, or they were controlled by his subconscious mind. In any case, the armor on the creature was extremely dangerous, and it had taken a great deal of magic just to bring the creature to Hordak somewhat safely.

Of course, an interruption from Catra was enough to cause Shadow Weaver to lose her focus, if only briefly. The metal wings used their brief moment of freedom to strike, and injure, one of the three young soldiers who had been tasked with carrying the beast.

“Lord Hordak. I believe that this creature, whatever it is, could be useful in our war against the princesses,” the warlord scoffed when he heard the witch’s statement. He was winning the war without the help of the creature, and he was certain that within the year he would succeed in seizing complete control over the world. He didn’t need the help of a strange horse. The only thing that interested him was the mysterious armor.

“Shadow Weaver, I do not require the assistance of an equine such as this to win this war, and I doubt he would be of much help even if such aid was required. You are wasting my time,” the creature stirred in its sleep as Hordak moved closer to it.

“Lord Hordak, I would advise against examining the creature too closely. I cannot guarantee that I will be able to restrain him completely if he were to wake,” the creature stirred again, kicking one of its hind legs as it slept.

“Do you honestly believe that any equine could possibly pose a threat to me?” To prove his dominance over the beast, Hordak delivered a mighty kick to the horse’s head, much to the shock of Shadow Weaver.

“Lord Hordak-”

“-Silence, get this beast out of my sight. Strip him of his armor, and feed what remains to the soldiers,” the beast chose that moment to open its eyes and fully awake from its sleep.

“This is not London,” the creature mumbled as it stood up and stretched. “Where am I, and why am I here?” The creature stared into Hordak’s cold eyes as Shadow Weaver watched with interest. If she needed to, she was sure that she could restrain the unicorn to an extent, but she also knew that she could only restrain him temporarily. What the beast was, she was unsure, but she was sure that he was dangerous, and that Hordak needed to be wary of the potential threat he posed.

“I do not have to answer the questions of a pathetic equine. Abandon your armor, and I may show you mercy, equine,” the armored unicorn seemed to grit his teeth.

“If you do not fear me or show me the respect I deserve, you are a fool, and I don’t like wasting my time with fools,” the unicorn hissed at warlord, then he turned his back on him as he walked away.

“Insolent equine. You are the fool if you think that you will be allowed to simply walk out of the Fright Zone. Shadow Weaver, restrain him,” the witch shook her head.

“Lord Hordak, if he wishes to leave, I think that we should allow him to do so,” the unicorn was almost out of the room. “We do not wish to push him towards the side of the princesses in this war. We have already lost Adora.”

“Adora? Your little prodigy abandoned us, and you neglected to inform me until now,” the unicorn stopped walking and turned around to face the witch after he heard Hordak’s words.

“Your little prodigy abandoned you?” The unicorn’s voice seemed slightly softer than it had been before. When he saw Shadow Weaver nod her head, his eyes seemed to soften as well, as though he felt some empathy towards her.

“I know how that feels. Spending years caring for an ungrateful brat, only to see them abandon you when the opportunity presents itself,” the unicorn growled as a cloud of blue smoke appeared to surround him. The metal claws covering his hoofs started to dig into the metal floor.

“Adora is like a daughter to me. To hear that she is now potentially fighting for the princesses is… Distressing, to say the least,” the unicorn nodded his head in understanding.

“Yes, I can see that we are a lot alike,” the blue smoke disappeared from the unicorn, and he walked towards the witch. When Hordak was able to see the damage the unicorn had done to his floor, he started to consider the possibility of the unicorn becoming a soldier in his army. However, that thought quickly disappeared when he remembered that a particularly strong unicorn with a strange suit of armor was still just a mere equine, and he was not willing to allow any equine to fight alongside his specially trained soldiers under any circumstances.

“I was the commander of the greatest military on the planet. If you are unaware of me, then I must be somewhere else now. Until I can return to where I belong, perhaps I could command your armies as I did in London, and fight alongside your soldiers,” Hordak sneered when he heard the unicorn’s offer.

“Out of the question, equine. I will never allow a beast like you to command my soldiers,” the unicorn turned his head away from Shadow Weaver to face the warlord. The contempt that both the unicorn and the warlord felt for each other would have been obvious to even the blindest of eyes.

“My name is Sir Phobos, and if you do not show me the respect I deserve, I promise that I will show you why I am feared where I am from,” Hordak scoffed at the beast’s threat.

“You don’t deserve respect, equine,” Sir Phobos smiled wickedly at the warlord.

“So be it. As I slaughter your soldiers by the hundreds, remember this,” Sir Phobos extended both of his metal wings. “I offered you my aid, and you rejected it,” with a mighty flap, the unicorn flew off of the ground and out of the room, leaving the warlord alone with the witch.

“Shadow Weaver, ensure that the equine does not leave the Fright Zone.”

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

The mischievous and distraught Catra had been waiting outside of Hordak’s throne room to talk with Shadow Weaver as soon as she left. She knew that they needed to get Adora to return to the Horde, somehow. As much as Catra didn’t want to admit it, she didn’t want to fight her friend, especially if she had strange magical powers.

However, when she saw the armored unicorn, she assumed that maybe there was something strange going on that Shadow Weaver and Hordak were unable to understand. Perhaps, Adora and the strange unicorn had found something within the woods that bestowed upon them great weapons that gave them incredible power.

Catra wanted that power. It wasn’t fair that Adora got the power and she didn’t. She got everything she wanted, from the love of Shadow Weaver, to the highest ranks available to her, while Catra received nothing. If anyone deserved the power that the unicorn and Adora possessed, it was her.

When she saw the unicorn fly out of the room at an incredible speed, she knew that she needed to chase it. Her resolve was strengthened when she heard Hordak claim that he wanted the unicorn to remain in the Fright Zone, and he asked Shadow Weaver to prevent his escape.

If Catra were to stop the unicorn, she could finally prove to Hordak that she was superior to Shadow Weaver, and that she deserved more power within the Horde.

She ran down the hallways searching for the unicorn. Her sharp senses allowed her to track the unicorn to an extent, but the fact that his metal armor covered most of his body hindered her a bit. He wasn’t quite as smelly as the creatures that Catra was used to tracking.

However, it seemed as though she wouldn’t need to rely on her sense of smell too much, since the unicorn was very keen to provide her a trail to follow.

Catra’s eyes widened when she saw the first corpse of a soldier lying on the ground. The unicorn was incredibly efficient, it seemed, the chest of the poor soldier had been torn open, and his heart was lying on the ground a mere 2 feet away. The soldier never had a chance to fight for his life against the monster.

As Catra walked through the halls, seeing more and more dead soldiers, she started to lose confidence in herself. She counted twenty-five soldiers who had met their end against the armored unicorn, and she was sure that she would encounter far more if she continued moving forward.

It terrified her to think about what those soldiers must have experienced in their final moments. Surprise, terror, followed by the worst pain they had ever experienced in their lives, and then absolutely nothing.

Was that what Adora had seen when she walked through a battlefield, stepping over the bodies of the victims of the Horde? Was that why Adora had defected to the side of the princesses?

Catra shook her head and tried to forget about the corpses of her fellow soldiers littering the halls. Corpses of soldiers older than her with far more combat experience than her. If Adora wasn’t strong enough to handle seeing such horrors, then Catra needed to prove herself to be stronger than Adora by being able to handle walking past the corpses.

“One step at a time,” Catra said to herself as she walked through the halls. She could smell the very faint scent of a horse, but the smell was quickly overpowered by the scent of blood. The creature was close, and it had claimed another life. If she wasn’t careful, she was sure that the beast would claim her life as well.

The sound of screams assaulted her ears. She could tell that the sounds were coming from one of the locker rooms. The poor cadets were probably terrified to see such a beast, however Catra morbidly noted that if the unicorn would likely stay in the room as long as there were cadets to slay, which was good for her.

She finally reached the locker room door just as the screams started to die down. The scent of blood was fresh in the air, and she could smell the faint scent of the unicorn, but she couldn’t hear his footsteps, or anyone’s footsteps.

Something was wrong, she knew that. Every instinct she had was telling her that she entered the room she would be walking into some kind of trap.

She grabbed one of the corpses on the floor, and then she kicked open the door. As soon as she did, she tossed the corpse inside, expecting the unicorn to pounce on it. What she didn’t expect to see was Kyle shaking and stammering as he pushed the corpse that Catra had tossed at him away.

“Catra, don’t…” The metal wing pierced the door, partially blocking her view of Kyle. She prepared herself for a fight, her muscles stiffening and her claws prepared for attack, as the creature stepped into her field of view.

“You were tracking me. You didn’t hide from me like so many others, you actually sought me out,” the unicorn’s metal claws flexed as it stared at Catra. “That means that you are either very brave, very strong, or very stupid.”

“I’m the strongest soldier here,” Catra sneered at the unicorn, bringing her claws to her face as she did. The unicorn seemed unimpressed by the display.

“That’s not a very high bar to cross,” the unicorn said with a tinge of weariness in his voice. “These soldiers all seemed to be poorly trained, and their leader lacked the ability to recognize my strength. It saddens me to see someone like you with so much potential squandering it with this pathetic military,” the unicorn sighed deeply.

“I suppose I’m feeling a bit homesick. If I was in London I would be surrounded by capable soldiers, and served by the most beautiful of unicorns. Here, well, I’m bored,” without warning, the unicorn pounced on Catra, pinning her to the ground before she had a chance to react. His wing pressed against her throat, drawing a small amount of blood.

“You remind me of myself when I was young. So confident, so brave, but you lack skills, you lack discipline, you lack knowledge. The fools here aren’t capable of helping you reach your full potential,” Catra struggled to free herself from the creature, but she wasn’t strong enough to push the heavy armored unicorn off of her. If she had reacted in time and dodged his pounced, she might have had a chance, but she didn’t.

“I pity you. I hope that I can see you fulfill your true potential someday. Perhaps, you could be my most challenging opponent, or my most valued ally,” a cloud of blue smoke surrounded Catra’s head.

“I cannot allow you to follow me, but it would be a shame to kill you. So, I guess I'll just put you to sleep, for now,” Catra fought against the urge she felt to fall asleep, but her efforts were futile. Within an instant her body fell limp, and the unicorn moved off of her when he heard her snore.

“So, umm, are you going to do something with me too, or can I go now?” Kyle asked from within the locker room. The unicorn turned around and smiled at the young soldier.

“I won’t hurt a cute female like you. However, I do expect you to remember this mercy I am showing you when I return,” the unicorn stoically walked away from the confused boy in the locker room.

“But… I’m a boy…”

  
  



	3. Chapter 3

“Don’t you understand what’s going on, because it seems very clear to me?!” Swift Wind had been annoying everyone who would bother listening to him ever since he heard the rumors of a mysterious armored horse fighting against the Horde. With the news of Adora saving Mermista’s kingdom and recruiting her into the alliance, fear of the Horde was diminishing.

People were still terrified of the Horde, but the rumors of the magical warrior known as She-Ra fighting against them, as well as a magical horse, were enough to give people hope that perhaps the Horde could be vanquished, and they didn’t need to be as scared of the soldiers anymore.

“A horse uprising led by the mighty Horse-Ra, and his trusted second-in-command, Swift Wind!” Adora couldn’t help herself from sighing deeply in exasperation when she heard her horse’s latest rant about the mysterious armored horse.

Bow and Glimmer were sitting close to her as they ate their lunch in the meeting room while they waited for Mermista to show up with Sea Hawk. Allegedly, the mysterious armored horse had contacted Sea Hawk and expressed a desire to join the alliance. However, apparently Sea Hawk was the only person who could lead them to the horse.

Glimmer and Adora were both skeptical of Sea Hawk’s claim, but they were both interested in potentially meeting the mysterious horse. Bow was willing to go anywhere if Sea Hawk was leading them, and Swift Wind had been fantasizing about meeting the horse for the entire day.

Mermista and Sea Hawk arrived shortly before Adora had finished eating her sandwich. Sea Hawk seemed excited about the prospect of leading the group on an adventure to talk to the mysterious horse, while Mermista seemed annoyed with the irritating man.

“Aah, you’re here! Soon, the uprising of horses will commence!” That was the first thing that Swift Wind decided to say when the group walked into the tent that the mysterious armored horse had made for himself with sticks and blankets that had been presumably stolen from the Horde.

“My name is Sir Phobos, and I am a unicorn,” Swift Wind seemed to shrink a little bit when the unicorn glared at him.

“Where I’m from, the word horse is an insult, a name forced upon us by the humans who treated us as slaves. Where I’m from, no unicorn would dare to refer to me using that terrible word. I expect you to show me respect, do you understand, white-coat?” Swift-Wind nodded his head enthusiastically.

“Of course I understand, and of course I respect you!” Swift Wind seemed like he was fighting the urge to sloppily bathe Sir Phobos with kisses while the rest of the group stared awkwardly at the two.

“Good. Now, listen. I am a soldier, and I wish to serve your queen in her army. The battles I’ve been winning, and the soldiers I’ve defeated should prove to you how capable I am,” the unicorn smirked. “You would be foolish if you were to deny me a place in your army.”

“How do we know that we can trust you?” Glimmer asked the armored unicorn. “We don’t know anything about you.”

“You know that I have been fighting against the Horde, that’s all that you need to know right now. If I wanted to hurt any of you, I could, and there would be nothing that you could do to stop me,” a chill seemed to run down the spines of everyone in the room when they heard the words of the metal unicorn.

“Do you really think that a single unicorn could take on two princesses and She-Ra by himself?” Sir Phobos smirked when he heard Mermista’s question.

“I’m going to count backwards from ten to give you time to get ready,” Adora was in her battle stance ready to counter any attack before he had finished his sentence, the others in the group seemed confused as to what he meant.

“Ten,” his first word seemed to echo through the tent. Sea Hawk seemed like he was debating whether to flee, or stay and help Mermista with whatever the unicorn was going to do.

“Nine,” Bow was following Adora’s lead, getting his weapon out far more slowly than Adora had.

Eight,” Adora tightened her grip on her sword. She wasn’t planning on transforming into She-Ra at that moment, not that she could if she wanted to. She didn’t quite understand how her new sword worked in any other way than it being a weapon.

Seven,” unseen, Mermista was preparing to attack the unicorn using the moisture she could feel in the air, as well as the water from a nearby stream. She wasn’t at her full power away from the ocean, but she was sure that she could subdue the unicorn.

Six,” Swift Wind was giddy with excitement at the thought of his new human friends suffering a defeat at the hooves of a unicorn. Maybe after their loss, they would show horses a bit more respect.

“Five,” Glimmer feared no horse, or unicorn. Whatever the unicorn tried to do, she knew that she could teleport away to safety.

“Four,” within the trees, Catra lurked. She had followed the group to the tent under Shadow Weaver’s orders. She was told to bring Adora back, but if she could take out the metal unicorn as well, Shadow Weaver would no doubt be pleased.

Three,” she had been desperately trying to get Shadow Weaver’s approval her whole life, and the witch had never given any indication that she was proud of her. When the unicorn was defeated, and Adora was back in the Horde, she would finally show her the love she deserved.

“Two,” the unicorn had defeated her so effortlessly, and the defeat had been weighing heavily upon her. She needed to win against him, to win against Adora. She could feel her soul becoming darker the more she thought about what she had lost.

“One,” everyone tensed within the tent waiting for what the unicorn would do. Catra smiled in anticipation as she eagerly waited to see what would happen. The moment seemed to stretch into eternity as they waited.

Then, Sir Phobos pounced.

  
  



End file.
